Offshore Drilling Foes Invoke 1953 Law to Prod Obama on U.S. Ban
- Environmentalists lobby Obama to invoke little-known authority
- Oil industry says action would be short-sighted and risky
This article is for subscribers only.
Environmental activists who dangled from bridges and paddled kayaks around an Arctic rig have a new strategy for stopping oil development off U.S. coasts: persuading President Barack Obama to use a 1953 law to bar offshore drilling permanently.
An obscure provision that’s been used to preserve coral reefs and walrus feeding grounds empowers presidents to exclude waters from future oil and gas development. Environmentalists want Obama to invoke that statute before leaving office to indefinitely block drilling in the U.S. Atlantic and Arctic.